"Who is it, exactly, you have needed all these years to forgive?"
The question is a line written by an elderly alcoholic poet in one of her poems, and she quotes it as she stares at the crime scene tape.
A lot of characters have much forgiving to do, and most of them need to be forgiven too.
Olivier has been wrongfully convicted and had to spend some time in jail before being exonerated. Has he forgiven Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec for putting him away?
Now that she's succeeded as an artist, and had her show at the Musee d'Art Contemporain in Montreal, Clara needs to forgive her ex-friend Lillian, who discouraged her artistic pursuits by writing a nasty review about her work. Or is it too late for that?
Art dealer Denis Fortin also suffered from one of Lilian's nasty reviews. Has he forgiven her, now that she's dead? Actually, Fortin himself has also got something on his conscience. Before she became a success, he trashed Clara's art and cancelled her show, setting her career back. Can he apologize now, and talk her into letting him represent her after all?
What about Clara's husband Peter? He has something on his conscience. In a moment of artistic jealousy, he did something nasty to his wife and she never found out. They weren't married at the time; still, he has yet to confess and ask forgiveness.
And then there are the alcoholics -- Suzanne, Thierry, Brian -- all on Step 9 of the AA program, trying to make their amends.
Oh yes, and the Surete detectives themselves. Isn't there just a little something between the Chief and his Inspector, Jean Guy Beauvoir, that needs to be healed by forgiveness?
Not to mention the need they both have to forgive themselves for things that happened during a life-threatening shoot-out in a warehouse that left both of them wounded in body and soul.
Chiaroscuro. Light and shadow. Evil deeds and forgiveness. Is the spark of light a sign of redemption? Or is it just a trick of the light? That's what this book is about.
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